“Well, in my defense…”
Clover winced. “Never a promising opening.”
“In my defense, she was gossiping about Sapphire with those other ladies. So, Sapphire’s knocked up?”
Clover went pale. “Argh,” she gurgled.
“Anyway, I hacked into the lady’s phone, and she’s cheating on her fiancé with some guy, so it is possible that her phone just downloaded a virus and every time she tries to text the other guy, it’s going to go to her fiancé.”
“Urgh. You did all that in the two or three minutes I was out of the store?”
“I know, I know, I’m getting slow, gotta brush up on my skills. Can we go to the coffee shop now? I want a donut.”
Clover led them all out of the store, with Sam by her side.
She fell behind as they cheerfully skipped off to the coffee shop. Sam kept pace with her.
“This is all my fault,” she moaned. “I shouldn’t have gone to college. I just didn’t see this coming. When I left, Autumn was ten and Lennon was nine and the girls were seven and… How did I let this happen? They weren’t anywhere near this bad when I left.”
Then she realized who she was talking to. Sam McCoy, the enemy. “But there were no drugs,” she said quickly. “Ever. If there were, I wouldn’t have tolerated it. I’d have turned them in, family or not. I do have my limits.”
“I believe you,” Sam assured her. “Besides, this isn’t a disaster. I see opportunity here.”
“How? You planning on being Fagan to a group of underage thieves?”
“No, I think they’d make fantastic security consultants.”
The kids were about to walk into the coffee shop, but he called out to them. “Hey, Jones gang!”
“Don’t call them a gang. I already think they have secret hand signals,” Clover said as they walked back over to him.
“I have a proposition for you. You guys get to go to my family’s summer camp for free, which means swimming, archery, and climbing on our rope challenge course. You pay us back by working with me as a security consultant. Also there would be some cash involved. I want you to help me identify security lapses for the local businesses in town, so they can prevent shoplifters and breakins.”
“That’s easy,” Moonlight said with a snort of contempt. “I already identified twenty-two different points of entry for the clothing store alone.”
“Moonlight! Really!” Clover was horrified.
“I know, right?” Twilight said. “There’s twenty-five. I’m disappointed in her. Loser.” She stuck her tongue out at her twin, then ducked her punch.
“What does the position security consultant entail?” Lennon asked.
“A security consultant gets to practice breaking the law all the time, but never gets arrested for it,” Sam said. “And they get to show the owners of big companies how dumb they are by stealing from them. And then the owners pay them.”
Lennon looked thoughtful. “Hmm. This interests me. Do we get to keep what we steal?”
“Hey! No, you do not,” Clover said angrily. Then she directed her wrath at Sam. “My family. Excuse me. Did you think of consulting me about this?”
“Do you want them to redirect their criminal genius for good, or not? Because it’s not going anywhere – it’s just a matter of where they use it.”
Clover scowled. Big jerk of a bear. He had her outmaneuvered again.
“I’m not sure that archery class is a great idea for these little felons-in-training,” she pointed out.
“That’s true,” Moonlight said. “Mom and Dad already taught us how to make a bow and arrow from scratch. We can probably skip that class. Or we could teach it. Challenge course sounds fun, though. Cat burglars need to be able to climb. So do bear burglars.”
“Did she just say we were in training?” Twilight asked, looking offended.
“Felons are people who get caught,” Moonlight added.
Clover blanched.
“Security consultant it is,” she said to Sam. “Stop looking smug.”
“Oh, that’s just kind of my natural expression, because I’m very happy with myself as a person.” His grin would have melted the clothes right off a lesser woman, but she was standing firm.
She saw Autumn strolling from behind the coffee shop towards her, quickly tucking her cell phone into her pocket. Interesting. She hadn’t gone into the coffee shop yet.
“We’re all going to summer camp tomorrow,” Moonlight informed her. “And then we get to teach Mr. McCoy how to steal things. I mean, how he can stop people from stealing things.”
“I’m too old for summer camp,” Autumn protested with a scowl. “That’s kid stuff.”
“If you want to stay with Imogen and help her out around the boarding house, you can,” Clover said. “She seems to think you’re an angel. Man, are you a good actress.”
Autumn’s lips twitched into a humorless smile. “I like Imogen. If anyone tried to hurt her I’d throw them out a window. After I stabbed them.”